HBO’s Gunpowder probably looks familiar at first glance. After all, it stars a brooding Kit Harington, clad in historic garb, hungry for a sense of justice. (To his credit, the Game of Thrones star has tried to differentiate his Gunpowder character — and real-life ancestor — Robert Catesby from Jon Snow by twirling his Westerosi whiskers into something resembling a dashing mustache.) But Gunpowder might go beyond what even Game of Thrones fans are used to.

**Spoiler Alert For Episode 1 of Gunpowder**

The very first episode features an extended public execution that is full of gruesome torture. The scene is so visceral that many Brits complainedon twitterthat they got sick watching it back when the series premiered on the BBC. It might just be worse than anything you’ve seen on Game of Thrones, where at the very least, grisly torture and bloody executions are usually over within a few awful frames.

But is the torture necessary? Maybe? At least when you consider the story Gunpowder is attempting to sell.

Photo: HBO

Gunpowder is about the men and women behind the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A group of Catholic rebels, fed up with King James I’s Protestant government, hatched a violent plan to set off a payload of explosives under Westminster Abbey, the constitutional and spiritual home of England. For reference, that’s where Parliament meets and where the Kings and Queens of England practice their religion. The Gunpowder Plot was foiled just in time and its mastermind, Catesby, and public face, Guy Fawkes, fell into infamy. (You know those “V for Vendetta” masks? That’s a “Guy Fawkes” mask. And the poem that goes, “Remember, remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason, and plot,” was intended as a catchy way to immortalize it.) Catesby and Fawkes had plotted a major act of terrorism and Gunpowder wants you to sympathize with their cause. How do you do that? Well, you dip into some of the worst chapters of sectarian violence in England and depict the persecution of Catholics with unblinking horror.

The first 20 minutes or so of Gunpowder make for an electrifying thriller. We watch as a bunch of thuggish King’s Men burst into a wealthy Catholic family’s home, interrupting mass and searching the place, foundations and all, for a group of Jesuit priests. These scenes are elegant in their horror. So when the interlopers finally do uncover a tow-headed, child-like young priest, you feel it as keenly as when monster devours an innocent in a scary movie. To cover for Catesby and his cousin (played by Liv Tyler), the lady of the house, their aunt, nobly takes the blame for harboring the priest.

Photo: HBO

So then we see what happens to the elegant older woman and the sweet young priest — and it truly is revolting. The woman is publicly stripped down for all to see, then slowly crushed to death between weights and a small, sharp rock. Catesby and his cousin have to watch all this and then they see more. At first it looks as thought the young priest will be merely hung, but after he is hung, he is brought down, still breathing, and drawn and quartered. It’s…a lot. And it definitely helps drum up sympathy for some of history’s most notorious would-be terrorists.

The question remains: Can you handle it?

Gunpowder is a three-part miniseries. Episode 2 will debut on HBO tomorrow, and episode 3 will run on Wednesday.

(Also, it’s okay if you leave tonight’s episode with a confusing crush on Guy Fawkes. Gunpowder also has elected to depict Fawkes and Catesby as stone cold Jacobian foxes. I’m not sure how historically accurate that choice is, but again, this is a show that’s trying to get you to understand, if not root for, historic terrorists.)